Tuesday, November 8, 2011

JUNIOR GIRL

My inner mind thinks she is in a big dungeon , I kinda think so too. Although its really hard here, the boarding house is a good place to be.

I remember the very first day i had to leave home. It was a very painful experience but now I look back and laugh at my naive self.

I got into this big school all smiley, had on my best dress at the time , a red flowing gown with cream flowers on both sides of the dress, my shoes were sparkling black. I had a smile that was enough to lighten the school compound. As I rolled my box containing all my survival belongings , my new house wears , school uniforms, my contra-bound canned foods and many other new things I was proud to own, I heard a girl giggle to her friends. I couldn't understand what they were giggling about but i was glad it wasn't a guy. My school was a girls only school- this made me excited because I thought I could get away with doing embarrassing things without being embarrassed by some mean boys. Little did I know I was wrong. The ladies giggling suddenly pointed rudely at my shoes and I realized why they were smiling. To impress my matron, after my mum neatly polished my shoes, I had used 'grease" to give it the extra shine but I forgot that grease attracts a lot of dust and my little white socks ( the one I saved from my aunties wedding ) was messed up. I felt so bad, I almost broke down in tears. I had to be brave because I wanted my mum to feel I was okay. It was the first time I was getting separated from her and it took a lot of getting used to for her.

The Matrons checked me in and I had a nice person pull my box all the way to my dormitory for me. As I swayed at the back of the one pulling my box, I heard someone scream "JUNIOR GIRL!!!!"..... uhn...say what? I dint know what that meant, but by the time I looked to my back , everyone except the lady carrying my box had fleed! I dint think it was a big deal till someone came from upstairs, dragged me by my flapy collar and pulled me up the stairs. The lady with my box's job was just to drop my box in front of my dormitory , not to save me. I was dragged upstairs like a cow that was been dragged away to be butchered. When I got upstairs, I had random girls throw empty nestle bottled water containers at me saying "Junior girl, fill it up". I broke down in tears. My mum did not name me JUNIOR GIRL...why did they call me that and treat me like a slave? I did not even know the way to my dormitory but i knew i was in OBONG HOUSE and i was a JUNIOR SECONDARY STUDENT IN THE FIRST YEAR ...also known as JSS1.

As i turned sadly, my timid self walking away to find the tap, i heard someone call me by my last name! Who knows me in this GOD FORSAKEN school, mean girls, ugly girls....my mom taught me not to curse but i could still say mean and ugly, i was feeling miserable! I looked back at someone that seemed familiar. it took me a second to figure out she was in my Primary School (middle school). Oh, Bathsheba!! She was the little girl with the singing butterfly hairbands. I was so excited, finally i wasn't in the jungle alone!!! she collected the containers from me, returned it to all the ladies that gave em to me cursing them off and took me to my dormitory. She got me a nice bed, dressed it for me and even helped to put my locker together. she kept some of my provisions and took me over to meet her sister i hadn't seen in years, Cherub.

As she walked me over to my dormitory at night, i asked her why they called me JUNIOR GIRL. She smiled and said, "in due time, you will understand !"

I met a couple of people in my dormitory that night, all within the ages of 9 and 12 years, the i-feel-like-am-so-mature ones who had already began puberty , the ones who felt their parents were the best in the world.....did i forget to mention the richest, the ones who were reserved and cared less about the new girl .. and the ones who explained why I was called a junior girl.